Read the Transcript Below:

Matt  

Good news. It really doesn’t matter how you answer any client question.

 

Matt  

Today’s podcast is brought to you by TPR LIVE. That’s right. The Perfect RIA, Micah and myself will be joining you live and in person in Phoenix, Arizona on September 25 where we will be helping you with all things related to fees, how much to charge your clients how to adjust your fees, how to explain the fees to your prospects, and of course the extreme accountability around how to make that actually happen. So go to theperfectria.com/live to get signed up and get all those important details. All right back to the show. 

 

Matt  

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of The Perfect RIA podcast. I’m your co-host Matthew Jarvis and with me as usual the man, the myth, the legend coming in live from Wasilla, Alaska. Yes, that’s really a place Wasilla, Alaska Micah Shilanski. Micah, how are you my friend?

 

Micah  

Jarvis, doing absolutely fantastic. I thought was gonna be from a secret bunker somewhere in Alaska, but apparently you gave that away so that’s great yeah. I’m doing really fantastic right wrapped up with Surge, had just a ton of fantastic client meetings. I always enjoy that so much. Going in with clients and to go through things and and life is really well. 

 

Matt  

It was funny Micah, you mentioned Surge, and I started talking about surge on this podcast six years ago now seven years ago. We’re doing it for many years before that, but you can really tell advisors who sort of understand the idea of surge and the advisors who actually do surge and really look at the advisors who are starting search this cycle in the advisors who are ending surge. The ones that are starting Surge, it’s like a kid going to school the first ride, it’s gonna be so much fun, and it wasn’t like midway through like – lot of work. A lot of work, totally worth it. A lot of work. 

 

Micah  

But that’s what it is. Right? It’s work in order to deliver massive value to clients. It’s work. So the question is, are you going to be the top 1% or are you not? That’s it that’s as simple as this question is, and everything we do is hyper intentional with clients in order to deliver the massive value. Now how work was defining this massive value we’re delivering to clients is helping them achieve their goal, right? And what is the most effective means of communication of meeting sequences of order operations in which we go through things like all of these things matter, everything counts, everything counts together, and we got to do it in a certain way that helps the client keep moving forward with their financial plan. And certain things I tell mine all the time, Jarvis is hey, what’s the best diet program and what’s the best workout program? And they can all answer that question. The one that you do, and I say, and this is the best financial plan is the one that you do and here’s what I can tell you after doing this for 24 years, is working with clients side by side through this process, we have a process of success. And there’s a certain way we’re going to do it, because at the end of it, you’re actually going to have an implemented financial plan. And when we don’t follow that process, it’s going to blow up and you’re not going to have a financial plan and that’s not what we want. So that’s the reason we’re going to do that. Now. That’s the client facing side. But that’s the reality of the back office as well, right? We still have a process of success we have to do and really what I find on client communication when we start seeing issues is when advisors go outside of that for some silly reason. 

 

Matt  

Quick sidebar here when you mentioned that client script there which I know you use on a regular basis with clients  for 24 years how many years in the industry before you told people how many years. Like that’s obviously right now appointed credibility, but it is right. Last week, as I’ve never seen, but but I just feel we have a big spectrum of advisor as one of the most popular if not the most popular advisor podcast by advisors for advisors, right and some of our advisors like yourself and myself been doing this for 20 plus years, a lot of credibility there some that have been doing this for under 20 weeks, right? So if you’re a newbie or a newer advisor, right, what do you say for credibility instead Micah?

 

Micah  

Well, a couple of things. 

 

Matt  

So hope they don’t ask right?

 

Micah  

So if you have any of those questions, because we all do that, they don’t ask, you got to write those down and we got to practice those. We got to rehearse those, we got to go through those, right because those will come up. So that’s why it’s a whole separate pod. On the credibility side for our younger advisors that are on our team, right? I say that is say, look, here’s what you’re gonna say is, look, we as a firm have been doing this for over four decades. And this is what we can tell you is going to work really, really well. That’s 100% accuracy. And so I’m using the firm’s our inside of that because they’re following that same process. And I like decades in there, right? I know I said 24 years for me, but this is sort of saying it right now. But decades is a really powerful thing. If you’re solo or you’ve been doing this and you don’t have that I would just kind of leave the time out there or put your clients in there. How many clients have you work with how many things you’d have says, Look, I’ve done this process over 100 times I’ve done this over 50 times. I have worked with clients just like you and here’s what I’m going to tell you is going to work really, really well. So remove the time element or the client element if that’s not a strong suit. Hey, I work with clients just like you and here’s what I’m going to tell you works in order to make sure they’re achieving their financial goals. 

 

Matt  

And what I like that you talk about its pivoted to your strong point, if you’re a younger adviser highlight that. Hey, great news. I will be here throughout your entire retirement and you can still bring in that credibility. Hey, advisors who mentor me, I’ve been doing this for decades and they said to always watch out for this right? So always play to your strong suits, but Micah to your earlier point if there’s something you’re afraid is going to be asked you’re gotta be ready for that question. 

 

Micah  

I was laughing about that when we were kind of talking about it because I remember in there about being the the younger advisor in there, but one of the things that I would go with is because I was really worried about that question because Micah, you look like you’re 12 like what are we doing? And I would always throw in there. Like what’s the most important question you need to ask another financial advisor and I was like, hey, one of the most important questions you got to ask another financial advisors, you’re interviewing them, are they going to be with you through your entire retirement? And if they’re not, maybe that’s not a good fit for you? Because that was a strength that I had. I had youth. I was like, I’m gonna be here a while right. I was gonna play that card and it’s a really good card to play. So that is an okay thing to throw out there and play to your strengths. 

 

Matt  

Now. Here’s what here’s one, whether you’ve got it one day in the industry, or you’re pressing 40 years in the industry, something that can come up for all of us. So Micah, I know you’re gonna have to dig deep and hypothetical and is when a client asks you a question to which you don’t know the answer. Now this could be because it’s an obscure technical question, which we’ll talk about in just a second. It could be because they’re asking you the outcome of the next election cycle, or when interest rates will move, or just something totally unrelated. Like, hey, what does this rash do you think I should see a doctor about this, right? Whatever the scenario is, there will always be times where client or prospective client asks you a question that you either don’t know the answer, or you don’t know how to articulate the answer and confidence in a way that they can relate to. 

 

Micah  

No, I do want to call this out, right? Because there’s times that with my other advisors on the team that will kind of be doing a debrief, and they’ll get caught up on this. They’re like, well, I’m not going to know the answer. But that’s not a problem. Like what’s the script that we use? How do we go through this? And they’re like, well, oh, Micah, that’s easy for you to say, the script. This doesn’t really happen to you. And I gotta call them out on it. I’m like, wow wow, we had a joint meeting last week with Bob and Sue, and X question came up, and how did I answer that? And they pause. They’re like, well, you told him that was a really good question, and that you wanted to make sure you got them a good answer. And so you’re going to do some research and you’re going to follow up and get back to them and ask them if that was okay with them. It’s like, aha, and what did they say? They said, they said, okay, great. That’d be fantastic. Thanks, Micah. I was like, kkay, so here’s a situation that I didn’t know the answer to that question right away the client asked, and I didn’t know what was coming. I didn’t know the answer to that. And I just phrased it in a way that gave me time in order to answer the question it best benefits the clients and clients understand that and now we get to the second part of this, which is super important that you can screw up the second part doesn’t matter what you did – the first part you shot yourself. That second part is really important. But there’s a lot of things you got to be thinking about Jarvis, you know, right. It is okay not to know everything, right? It is okay to say hey, I got some resources that have experienced with this and I want to reach out to those resources, and I want to get you the best answer I possibly can. And I’ve never ever had a client mad about me about that.

 

Matt  

So let’s contrast that Micah with the opposite extreme, which could be it which is also factual. He was like, Hmm, I’ve never heard that question before. That’s that’s a stumper. That’s a real thinker. Hmm. So so how much confidence is that going to instill? Now both of them could be accurate right. But again, my job or my biggest jobs is give my clients confidence in the future right. And just like me when I meet with a professional, so if I got to be with a doctor, I say, Doc, I got this thing going on. Have the doc says ha, never heard of that before. I’m thinking I’m in the wrong place, or the wrong plan is find a different doctor. 

 

Micah  

I’ve always wanted to work on that. That’s fantastic. I was at a doctor’s office actually once and that’s what they said it was a dental office, and that’s what the dentist said in the room over and I could hear him. He says Ha! I’ve read about these but I’ve always wanted to work on one of that. I looked at the doctor I said, if you ever tell me that I am leaving, this is not the place for me. So immediately erodes your confidence. 

 

Matt  

Well think about Joe Schmo as the Alaska airline flight where the fake door blew off right. Had that pilot ever had that happen before? Absolutely not. How about the Miracle on the Hudson did solely get on the thing he’s like, Huh? He literally had never had that happen. All right. So it’s all been Miracle on the Hudson never had a chance time we’re both engines have gotten taken up in bird strikes. Probably almost never happened in the history of aviation, right? Did he get on the thing? Ladies and gentlemen, we are at Royal F right here. I’m not really sure what to do because it’s never happend before. Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts. We’re going to be making a rough landing, right? That’s your job as an advisor and so anything you’re doing that pulls back the client’s confidence is a failure of your job. It’s not where we, by the way, we’re not lying, this isn’t about feeding the line of BS. This is about a half to give confidence all that they do. 

 

Micah  

Yeah, don’t give me a false answer. No, you can still have confidence in saying you don’t know something right. I think that this comes into, and I’m probing into this a little bit in my mind. And I wonder if this comes into advisors are worried about that they’re going to be saying I don’t I don’t know. I don’t know the entire meaning and never answering any question. And I think that’s an emotional response that comes up because let’s think about in a client meeting. Let’s say you’ve only been an advisor for five to 10 years. You got to know 80% of the stuff that the clients are going to be bringing up and asking right and you’re like, Oh, I’m not sure about that. Yeah, you do. You got a good handle on cash flow by this time in there. You have a decent handle on investments, at least where your strategy is going to be, you know about taxes. You may not be that great at taxes, but you’re probably better than they are and understanding how taxes work. You understand how retirement distributions work, right? So you know a lot of these things and so again, our job isn’t to know everything we know a lot. We’re in the business, you know, 15-20 plus years, you know, 99.9% of your niche market of the questions that they bring in. That’s the caveat right here my niche market right. You put me up in front of federal employes. I am really, really good because I do that every single day inside and out. You put me through an expat with RSOs and other things and moving around. I’m like, Man, these are fantastic questions. I had a client recently moved to Japan. And one of the other advisors working on it says Hey, Micah, why do they owe so much taxes and Japanese tax I was like, I have no idea. I would suggest you reach out and find an advisor that understands Americans moving to Japan, and how the taxation works. And he’s like, what do you mean, you don’t know what’s like? I don’t know Japanese tax. Yeah, there’s a lot I don’t know. Right? So this is where we’re going to pull in this other resource. Now. That’s not how I would phrase it to a client led to that advisor. It’s okay that we don’t know stuff what was what we know inside of our niche. 

 

Matt  

This also plays into a bigger thing on systems and this is Micah when advisors run astray all the time. This is also where we see kind of self proclaimed experts run a straight read. So they think like, oh, I just need to know how to answer that. One question. Let me give you a specific example. I had a meeting on my calendar, a quick phone call with a client who the client had a question. His question was, hey, last year, we have a $7,000 refund. This year, we owe $3,000. Can you help me understand what’s going on? That’s a great question to ask. And it’s a question that if it was just asked off the cuff, I would really have no idea and I could speculate at it. I can’t I would never say I had no idea. But let’s step back in this system. How did this come down? The client called my office said, Hey, this question about my taxes, call in my relationship manager said that’s a great question for Matthew, can you give me a few more details and can I schedule a time for him to call you? Yeah, that’d be great. Here’s some details. So then, Micah I had time to pull up all this information from 2023 kind of figure out like, what’s sort of going on here. Think about my questions. Make sure I do all the moving pieces that I can call. Hey, buddy, what’s going on today? Really glad to chat with you. We can walk through that. So good. 

 

Micah  

So many things inside of that. 

 

Matt  

Oh, yeah. 

 

Micah  

One – The empowering Colleen to set an appointment and it’s not just a return phone call. And sometimes if our clients give us a little push back in setting an appointment, says can Micah just call me back to say Micah would love just to call you back. But this could play a game of telephone, and I know that will just be frustrating. It’s frustrating for me, I’m sure it’s frustrating for you. Is it okay if we just set a time to avoid the game of telephone? And they’re like oh yeah, of course that makes tons of sense. But this is training that you work with Colleen on so that that little nugget is huge. Her asking some additional questions. Jarvis to set you up for success. It was Hey, Bob has some questions. You need to give him a call back. What questions does Bob have? What am I supposed to prepare for in order to answer these questions? Now Colleen has that details right now. It’s probably not all of the information that you would ideally like it’s going to give you 80 to 90% of it is alright now this is where I need to focus at Bob has a question on taxes about 22 vs 23. Sweet. I can pull those records I could grab some 1099 some investment information. What else was happening? I can read over the notes as it relates to taxes. I can now have an impactful call with Bob, which is what we’re going for. 

 

Matt  

I got one other one for you, Micah. I think I haven’t told you this one yet. We had a client come in during surge. So that one I just gave I had preparation for had a client come in during surge we’re getting done. I say Bob any other because again, again for new podcast listeners where we say Bob and Sue for client confidentiality. Bob, any other questions or concerns again, you don’t actually have to get one more. I was doing my taxes for 2023 and I owe $83,000. Bobby owed 82 – I’m not really sure why. Bob, that sounds a little unusual. Now Micah at this point, I have no idea why. I have no idea. 

 

Micah  

I’d love to see his taxes. 

 

Matt  

That’s well that’s what I said Bob, you know what, I would love to take a look at those taxes. Well, Matthew, I do the taxes myself in tax and I can’t figure out how to get a preview because they’ve really locked it down trying to get a preview.

 

Micah  

Oh they I have. 

 

Matt  

So I said Bob let’s do this. Why don’t we do this because I could have guessed that I could say a lot about this you must have missed them. Why don’t we do a zoom meeting or come back into the office with your laptop and I’ll click through it with you and we’ll kind of see what’s going on. Matthew that would be great right so I could have lost it like i by by making some here’s what it was. He had bought. This is like a calculator thing.He had bought like a collectible Porsche that he got it for like 70 grand he put 20,000 into it sold it for $400,000. 

 

Micah  

Holy crap!

 

Matt  

So it’s like a $300,000 capital gain. They didn’t connect it. That could be why he owes 83K. That was just sold the car I don’t know why it’s an issue. That’s I’m putting it through a capital gain. 400,000 What is this Bob? Oh, I sold my car. What kind of car did you sell? But it was a trap I could have fallen into. 

 

Micah  

Alright. Well Jarvis you and I got to have a conversation off the podcast about how you were reviewing the clients bank accounts and missed a $400,000 deposit. I don’t know. That would be another question on why we do cash flow first and I’m always asking clients, how much money do they have in checking and saving. And clients now come come for but this is why. But that’s the reason cash flow is so important in this conversation – it is the heartbeat of retirement. If I know a client’s checking and savings balances, I can see things like this either coming up or you know, be ahead of them or I can start seeing problems right. The clients are spending the same amount of money but their account was 100 grand now it’s 80 grand now it’s 75 grand now it’s 60 grand. Okay, you’re not spending the same amount of money. You can see these things coming up. 

 

Matt  

Yeah, that’s great Micah. What about totally unknowable, right? So let’s talk about cash flow for just a minute you say cash flow is the heartbeat of retirement. It’s a brilliant wind to use and the client said hey, it’s an election year interest rates are moving you know, whatever Apocalypse du jour Am I okay to keep taking x amount out I mean, we don’t know what the future will bring right but we still have to come in with competency and this is how much we’re taking out this year. So how do you handle it? How did you handle that during surge?

 

Micah  

Yes, so this is one of the ones and again I love having a growing advisor team we’re going to onboard advisor this year to super excited about and so one of things I get to hear these these questions kind of directly from them and go through which is awesome extra questions. I had that I might have kind of forgotten about in one of them that I have to remind our team on this this is look – It’s our job to know what levers we can pull and to know when we can pull levers, but we don’t create new levers. We can’t make these things up. So what does that mean? If a client is overspending that’s not our fault. What is our responsibility? Our responsibility is to look at them and say, Hey, under the set of circumstances, here’s how much money you can safely take out. You’re probably never gonna outlive your money. And here’s our safety net that when x happens, we will do y and this is how we’re going to watch it. That’s our job. Now if x happens, and we have to do y whether x is the market fell by 50% whether they had a life event and how to pull a lot of money out of their accounts and now they need to spend less, right. That’s not our fault. Our job is to look out there and say, hey, look, here’s the parameters. And when things go off the rails, here’s our plan. Here’s how we’re going to keep it on track. But when life happens we get off track. Here’s what we’re going to do that’s to know the levers and know how we can pull the levers in order to get the maximum result but our job is not to create another lever. Our job is not to say clients taking out 9% rate means you can keep taking out 9% Right. That’s not our job is to say hey, you’re overspending and here’s how we can get you back on the same track. And if we’re not, we’re not the right advisors for you. 

 

Matt  

And so in your example, right 9% in most scenarios seems like pretty hard, high number it seems like an unsustainable number, right. And it’s easy. I saw an article the other day in a major industry publication saying that advisors need to update their capital market assumptions, whatever. What does that mean whatever that actually means that advisors can spend so much time going down this rabbit hole of well as ideal distribution rate 4.73 or 5.412. You guys and girls, you got to just you got to pick a number, right? And the best way to do that, especially if that’s not your cup of tea is find someone that you respect, who has the practice that you like the expertise that you trust and say great is one of your conferences, I go around ask every advisor what distributed are you using and if they hesitate, I stopped the conversation, because what that means is that they’re just hoping the software’s right and by the way, the software is not any more right than anywhere else. I could throw a dart at the wall it’s just as accurate as the software.

 

Micah  

Wo,wo wo! Software throws 1000 darts at the wall takes the averages of all of the darts therefore it is more accurate where the next dart will be thrown.

 

Matt  

And the AI makes its own darts and its own wall inside of the metaverse.  

 

Micah  

That’s a good twist. I didn’t think about that one. 

 

Matt  

But I just want to see who’s got confidence in what they’re doing, how they articulate to clients. If that it resonates to me, right because by the way, if the markets go to zero tomorrow and they stay at zero, no distribution strategy is going to work. None of them right. So it’s again we’ve got a lot of side tangents here. It’s so critical. When you’re meeting with a client, it’s perhaps one of the most critical things that you’re instilling confidence in the path that you’ve chosen, even if that path is really the least bad of the options. 

 

Micah  

Alright, so Jarvis let’s break this down a little bit more. One of the things that kind of came out a little bit is you know it we started talking about it and we got a great quantification which I always love. Let’s go back to it. But when a client asks a question, and you don’t know the answer to that, right, let’s kind of dive into that one just a little bit more. Because the reason I bring this up is this is where you can really blow your credibility. So there’s a couple things that I learned from the Amercian Tax Council Rod Zeeb. So many years ago, when I was first starting in the industry, I was learning about taxes and estate planning. One of their comments was, nothing can surprise you in that conference room. Whatever the client brings out. Whatever happens, right? You better have a good game based there’s nothing that surprised you. That doesn’t mean you’re emotionless. Right. But you need to have poise, you need to have a good response to these things. So it’s I’ve really taken that to heart over the years. It’s a good one. Yeah. And it comes up when someone asks a question that I don’t know. Now, if somebody asks a question, I don’t know, I could very truthfully and honestly say, I don’t know. But does that help the client? Right now? Not saying why that’s not what I’m talking about here with me, right? But there’s different ways I can answer this. I could say, I don’t know what, what do I do with that? How do I come up with an answer? Or I could say, You know what, that’s a really good question. And I could give you an answer on the back of a napkin, but I really want to do a little bit more research and come back to you with something with more information or really I want to reach out to some additional resources that I have. Because this isn’t an area of my expertise and I want to pull in the people whose area of expertise it is, and let’s get a good answer for you. Is that going to be okay with you? And clients always say yes. Now, out of those two answers, one is I don’t know. And the other one says that’s a really good question and, right. Which one is going to inspire more confidence with the client to achieve their financial goals? We can’t lose sight of that. Our main objective is to help the client achieve their financial goal. So which one of those answers does that?

 

Matt  

The one where you’re saying that’s a good question? I’m validating their question. I’m saying I’m going to get you an answer to that question every time because it’s the answer I want. 

 

Micah  

Yeah, and clients don’t need the answer right away. They need to know you have it at your fingertips that you could get the answer for them, as well. Right. And we’ve had questions from clients about hey, what roofer should I use, right what’s gonna happen with this election? When these bonds go through? What does this mean? How should I vote on these ballots that are coming up, etc, right? We get all sorts of these fun questions that are there. You need a system in order to be able to answer those. 

 

Matt  

By the way, if you’re not getting those kinds of questions, it should be a bit of an alarm, that you’ve drawn too much focus to investment management, right? So clients questions are all numbers and money related, you’re missing the mark, that’s a warning sign. But here’s another approach to that right client comes in and says, Hey, Mike, what’s the what’s the Fed funds rate right now? Or what’s the price of Bitcoin or what’s the discount rate on 10 year treasury bonds? There’s always a spot where I can say mister missus client that’s a that’s a great question. Can you tell me a little bit more about why you’re asking? Right? So I can always go with, which by the way it goes through things like we just talked about this before, hey I’m thinking about buying a rental property, I’m thinking about buying real estate, I’m thinking about buying gold. That’s a great idea that strategy can really work in some situations. Can you tell me a little bit more about what you’re thinking? Now I bought myself time, I’ve bought myself time to process, but more importantly I’ve validated the client and I’m letting them tell me more about the situation. This might have just been like a random flow through their head, because on the radio on the way in, they heard about a gold comercial or something. Or it might be something that they’ve already done or something that they’re really thinking about. I gotta suss that out a little bit more. 

 

Micah  

You know, this allows you to see what the client’s perspective is on it, which is so so important, right? What are they solving for? How many times if somebody came in and said that and it was that same thing? It says, I don’t know. I thought we should have a more diversified portfolio. Okay, well tell me a little bit more what diversified means. Let’s talk a little bit about how your setups, do you feel that this is diversified, right? So with asking that to get more information on this question, Jarvis. That’s such a solid point.

 

Matt  

Highlights again, the critical nature of spending time with other successful advisors. So let’s use just a real quick one on gold. Whenever a client asked me about gold, I always say good, it’s always the husband that’s ask him. I always say you know what, Bob here’s my philosophy on gold. You should buy Sue as much gold as she’ll ever wear. Because then no matter what happens to the price of gold, you’ll still win. And we all smile and we all laugh it defuses the the situation. He kind of realizes how silly the question is, and nine times out of 10 we’ve won. Now where did I get that from? Because I used to go to conferences I’d ask every advisor about hey, what do you say when a client asks about gold? And 99 out advisors out of 100 give me some stupid answer. And one old timer one day says: Jarvis, let me tell you what I say. I say Bob buy Sue as much gold as she can wear because no matter what you’ll win, my friend. Perfect, that’s what I’m gonna use!

 

Micah  

 Solid line!

 

Micah  

It moves that conversation off to where it should be. I love it. Well Jarvis this podcast is all about action items. Right? And it’s before we get into those I want to follow up on member we said earlier, there’s two parts of answering a client question right? If you screw up the second part, it doesn’t matter what happens on the first part, and the second part is setting the expectations of when they are going to get an answer. That is that is, in my opinion, the most important part of answering the client questions, because if you answer the client questions outside of their expectations of when they were going to get a response, the answer is invalid. Right? Because it’s Micah you didn’t get back to the agency of how to do all this other work, man. I wish he would have told me this sooner. So it’s always the second part of it is once I defer the question, I set a time in which I’m going to get backto them. Bob, it’s a great question. I’d love to do a little bit more research before I get you a final answer on this. Is it okay if I get back to you by Wednesday of next week with this answer? Now, maybe it’s more complex, this is a this is going to take me a few weeks because I’d got to reach out to some other resources etc. Is it okay if I get back to you by the end of the month, and that looks like it’s X date in order to get back to you. You know, I’m always going to be setting some expectation with that. The expectation also could be Hey, Bob, I’m gonna get back to you Wednesday of next week and how long I think it’s gonna take to get this in place, you know, so I can update you on a timeframe. But I always am setting an expectations for that communication. Because if I don’t set them the client sets them, and the issue that is I don’t know what they’re expecting. So I can’t meet that objective, right. I can’t meet that goal. If I don’t know what they’re thinking so I’m always pushing out to set that communication standards.

 

Matt  

Yeah!

 

Matt  

Because if you don’t deliver on that, right? Then the clients mind consciously or not, they’re gonna say hey, Jarvis didn’t do what he said he was gonna do where else is he not reliable? The worst version? I see that Micah I was talking to one of my attorneys the other day and he says I’ll get back to next week on that unless I don’t find anything and then I won’t send you anything. So if you don’t hear from me, it’s because I didn’t find anything. Horrible! Or you forgot or the email got lost or you’re just trying to brush me off or really any of those things didn’t? Didn’t instill a lot of confidence. But speaking of confidence might be the best way you’re gonna get more confidence in client meetings is by taking action. So Micah, let’s kick us off with an action item here. What’s something that listeners can do so that in their next meeting and they get some curveball question, they can approach it with confidence.

 

Micah  

Oh, man, something you got to do we all need to do more of and yet we don’t want to it is practice, practice, practice, practice. You got to rehearse these scripts. How are you gonna say them? How are you going to deliver? What does it look like zoom? What does it look like on the phone call? What does it look like in person? Practice, practice, practice! So you can roll of with this answer as if it was your name.

 

Matt  

Micah, I love that action. I remember to this is the best kind of practice, of course to practice with other advisors, other successful advisors not, hey, let’s imagine a scenario and figured out like, tell me a real scenario. Or here’s, I’ll tell you one, right? And then tell me how you would answer that. So you’ve got to make sure these are advisors that have the practice that you want. Not that you both dreaming about the practice because otherwise it’s an echo chamber of really bad ideas. 

 

Micah  

Yeah, amen to that. And number three, share the podcast we’re always looking to grow give us five stars kick the podcast out. We’re always looking to help transform other advisors lives and how they do financial planning. Jarvis as always, it’s been a blast, my friend. 

 

Matt  

Yeah, Micah. Thank you. So much. To all our listeners: Until next time, happy planning!

 

Micah  

Happy planning!

 

Matt  

Before you leave a word from our sponsors. Hey, everybody, want you to take a look around your office and on your desk. There should be the Retirement Tax Services Desktop Tax Guide. And if it’s not there, or if it’s not currently, meaning you didn’t download it in the last month: Go to retirementtaxservices.com and download The Desktop Tax Guide. This is a must have resource for every financial advisor commited to tax planning!